Rasulullah SAW and his cat Mueeza

We have heard remarkeable stories about the beautiful akhlaq of Prophet Muhammad SAW. He was kind to everyone; his wives, his family, his companions, strangers and even the kafeer (unbelievers). But do you know that Rasulullah SAW was kind to animals too?

Rasulullah SAW had a cat named Mueeza which he was very fond of. Everytime Prophet Muhammad SAW entertained guests at his home, he would bring Mueeza along and put Mueeza at his lap. Rasulullah SAW liked to see Mueeza purr when it hears the adzan (call for prayers). Allah's Apostle reminded us to be kind to cats and treat them like how we would treat our family member.

Once, Rasulullah was about to take his jubah when he saw Mueeza sleeping on it. Rasulullah then cut the arm portion which Mueeza was sleeping on in order not to wake his favourite cat. Masha Allah! Such a charming akhlaq. Whenever Prophet Muhammad SAW returns home, Mueeza would run to him as a gesture of being playful. In turn, the prophet would cuddle Mueeza. Rasulullah stressed that cats are not filthy. Plus, he even allowed taking the ablution from water of which a cat has drank from it.

Abu Qatadah mentioned that Prophet Muhammad SAW said "Cats are not profane. They love to play in houses (tame animal)" [HR At-Tirmidzi, An-Nasa’i, Abu Dawud, and Ibnu Majah].

In another narration by Ali bin Al-Hassan, one day Anas and Rasulullah went to Baththan, a district in Medina for a trip. Rasulullah said to Anas "O Anas, pour me some water into the bowl for me to take my ablutions". Anas poured the water and when Rasulullah was just about to take his ablutions, a cat came and drank from the bowl. Rasulullah saw the cat and stopped taking his ablutions. When the cat left, Rasulullah continued his ablutions. Anas asked him about the incident and he said "Cats are among the ornaments of a house. It is not filthy nor profane"

The punishment for torturing a cat is very serious. In a hadith by Bukhari, it was told that a lady who never fed her cats, or even lets them to find food on their own will be punished severely and the punishment to her as said by Rasulullah SAW was the Hell fire.

A few researches were conducted on cats of various ages, skin position and body parts such as tails and paws. Bacteria were placed on the said parts of the cats. A few samples of the cats' saliva were aso taken from their mouth and tongue. After the researches, it was concluded that:

1) The samples taken from the skins contained no bacteria

2) The samples taken from the mouth and tongue contained only 20% of bacterias (which showed that cats can fight the viruses spread on them)

3) The bacteria found in the sample are common bacteria such as enterobacter, streptococcus and thapylococcus. The quantity is small and these are common bacteria found in human. No harmful bacteria were found.

Reviews from doctors specialising in microorganisms such as Dr George Maqshud, head of laboratorium in Baitharah Veterinary mentioned that a cat's salive seldom contains germs. If the saliva contains germs, it just shows that the cat is sick or will fall sick.

So there you go. Keeping a cat is not harmful to you and praised by syarak. Plus, it is a sunnah which we seldom heard of, getting rewarded for keeping cats. Another good news for cat lovers out there! Alhamdulillah.

Source : http://islamicwellness.com/rasulullah-saw-and-his-cat-mueeza/

Relative clause

A relative clause is a kind of subordinate clause that contains an element whose interpretation is provided by an antecedent on which the subordinate clause is grammatically dependent; that is, there is an anaphoric relation between the relativized element in the relative clause, and the antecedent on which it depends.

Typically, a relative clause modifie a noun or noun phrase, and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the arguments within the relative clause has the same referent as that noun or noun phrase. For example, in the sentence I met a man who wasn't there, the subordinate clause who wasn't there is a relative clause, since it modifies the noun man, and uses the pronoun who to indicate that the same "man" is referred to within the subordinate clause (in this case, as its subject)..

In many European languages, relative clauses are introduced by a special class of pronouns called relative pronoun; such as who in the example just given. In other languages, relative clauses may be marked in different ways: they may be introduced by a special class of conjunctions called relativizers; the main verb of the relative clause may appear in a special morphological variant; or a relative clause may be indicated by word order alone. In some languages, more than one of these mechanisms may be possible.

Restrictive and non-restrictive

Bound relative clauses may or may not be restrictive. A restrictive, or defining, relative clause modifies the meaning of its head word (restricts its possible referent), whereas a non-restrictive (non-defining) relative clause merely provides supplementary information. 

For example:

The man who lives in this house has not been seen for days. This (who lives in this house) is a restrictive relative clause, modifying the meaning of man, and essential to the sentence (if the clause were omitted, it would no longer be known which man is being referred to).

The mayor, who lives in this house, has not been seen for days. This is a non-restrictive relative clause, since it provides supplementary information about the mayor, but is not essential to the sentence – if the clause were omitted, it would still be known which mayor is meant.

In speaking it is natural to make slight pauses around non-restrictive clauses, and in English this is shown in writing by commas (as in the examples). However many languages do not distinguish the two types of relative clause in this way. Another difference in English is that only restrictive relative clauses may be introduced with that or use the "zero" relative pronoun.

In colloquial speech, a non-restrictive relative clause may have a whole sentence as its antecedent rather than a specific noun phrase; 

for example:

The cat was allowed on the bed, which annoyed the dog.

Here, the context of the sentence (presumably) indicates that which refers not to the bed or the cat but to the entire proposition expressed in the main clause, namely the circumstance that the cat was allowed on the bed. Such constructions are discouraged in formal usage and in texts written for nonnative speakers because of the potential for ambiguity in parsing; a construction more accepted in formal usage would be The cat's being [or having been] allowed on the bed annoyed the dog.

Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_clause

Tugas Softskill bulan ke-empat Bahasa Inggris Bisnis 2

Exercise 37 Relative Clause

1.  The last record which produced by this company became a gold record.
2.  Checking accounts that require a minimum balance are very common now.
3.  The professor whom you spoke yesterday is not here today
4.  John whose grades are the highest in the school has received a scholarship
5.  Felipe bought a camera which has three lenses
6.  Frank is the man who we are going to nominate for the office of treasure.
7.  The doctor is with a patient whose leg was broken in an accident
8.  Jane is the woman who is going to china next year
9.  Janet wants a typewriter that self-corrects
10.The books which i found last week contains some useful information
11.Mr. Bryant whose team has lost the game looks very sad.
12.James wrote an article which indicated that he disliked the president
13.The director of the program who graduated from Harvard University is planning retire next year
14.This is the book that i have been looking for all year
15.William whose brother is a lawyer wants to become judge.


Exercise 38 Relative clause reduction

1.  George is the man chosen to represent the committee at the convention
2.  All the money accepted has already been released
3.  The papers on the table belong to patricia
4.  The man brought to the police station confessed to the crime
5.  The girl drinking coffee is mary allen
6.  John's wife a professor has written a several papers on this subject
7.  The man talking to the policeman is my uncle
8.  The book on the top shelf is the one that i need
9.  The number of students counted is quite high
10.Leo evans a doctor eat in the restaurant every day


Exercise 39 Subjunctive

1.  The teacher demanded that the student leave the room
2.  correct
3.  It was very important that we delayed discussion
4.  correct
5.  correct
6.  correct
7.  I advise that you take the prerequisites before registering for this course
8.  His father prefers him to attend a different university
9.  correct
10.She urged that we find another alternatif

The Miracles of Zamzam

The story of Ibrahim (AS) is well known to Jews and Christians as well as to Muslims. In Islam he is remembered as one of the great Prophets, and as the father of the Prophet Isma'il (AS), who was the ancestor of Mohammed (SAW) himself. Centuries ago, Hagar searched desperately for water in the hills of Safa and Marwa to give to her newly born son Ismail (AS). As she ran from one place to another in search of water, her child rubbed his feet against the sand. A pool of water surfaced, and by the grace of God, shaped itself into a well which came to be called Zamzam water.

Let me go back to how it all started. In 1971, an Egyptian doctor wrote to the European Press, a letter saying that Zamzam water was not fit for drinking purposes. I immediately thought that this was just a form of prejudice against the Muslims and that since his statement was based on the assumption that since the Ka'aba was a shallow place (below sea level) and located in the center of the city of Makkah, all the wastewater of the city collecting through the drains fell into the well holding the water.

Fortunately, the news came to King Faisal's ears who got extremely angry and decided to disprove the Egyptian doctor's provocative statement. He immediately ordered the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources to investigate and send samples of Zamzam water to European laboratories for testing the potability of the water.

The ministry then instructed the Jeddah Power and Desalination Plants to carry out this task. It was here that I was employed as a desalting engineer (chemical engineer to produce drinking water from sea water) and was chosen to carry out this assignment.

At this stage, I remember that I had no idea what the well holding the water looked like. I went to Makkah and reported to the authorities at the Ka'aba explaining the purpose of my visit. They assigned a man to give me whatever help was required. When we reached the well, it was hard for me to believe that a pool of water, more like a small pond, about 18 by 14 feet, was the well that supplied millions of gallons of water every year to pilgrims ever since it came into existence at the time of Prophet Ibrahim (AS), many, many centuries ago.

I started my investigations and took the dimensions of the well. I asked the man to show me the depth of the well. First he took a shower and descended into the water. Then he straightened his body. I saw that the water level came up to just above his shoulders. His height was around 5 feet, 8 inches. He then started moving from one corner to the other in the well (standing all the while since he was not allowed to dip his head into the water) in search of any inlet or pipeline inside the well to see from where the water came in. However, the man reported that he could not find any inlet or pipeline inside the well.

I thought of another idea. The water could be withdrawn rapidly with the help of a big transfer pump which was installed at the well for the Zamzam water storage tanks. In this way, the water level would drop enabling us to locate the point of entry of the water. Surprisingly, nothing was observed during the pumping period, but I knew that this was the only method by which you could find the entrance of the water to the well. So I decided to repeat the process. But this time I instructed the man to stand still at one place and carefully observe any unusual thing happening inside the well. After a while, he suddenly raised his hands and shouted, "Alhamdulillah! I have found it. The sand is dancing beneath my feet as the water oozes out of the bed of the well."

Then he moved around the well during the pumping period and noticed the same phenomenon everywhere in the well. Actually the flow of water into the well through the bed was equal at every point, thus keeping the level of the water steady. After I finished my observations I took the samples of the water for European laboratories to test. Before I left the Ka'aba, I asked the authorities about the other wells around Makkah. I was told that these wells were mostly dry.

When I reached my office in Jeddah I reported my findings to my boss who listened with great interest but made a very irrational comment that the Zamzam well could be internally connected to the Red Sea. How was it possible when Makkah is about 50 miles away from the sea and the wells located before the city usually remains dry?

The results of the samples tested by the European labs and the one we analyzed in our lab were found to be almost identical. The difference between Zamzam water and other water (city water) was in the quantity of calcium and magnesium salts. The content of these was slightly higher in Zamzam water. This may be why Zamzam water refreshes tired pilgrims, but more significantly, the water contains fluorides that have an effective germicidal action.

Moreover, the remarks of the European labs showed that the water was fit for drinking. Hence the statement made by the Egyptian doctor was proved false. In a way, it was a blessing that this study was undertaken to show the chemical composition of the water. In fact, the more you explore, the more wonders surface and you find yourself believing implicitly in the miracles of Zamzam water that God bestowed as a gift on the faithful coming from far and wide to the desert land for pilgrimage.

Let me sum up some of the features of Zamzam water. This well has never dried up. On the contrary it has always fulfilled the demand for water. It has always maintained the same salt composition and taste ever since it came into existence. Its potability has always been universally recognized as pilgrims from all over the world visit Ka'aba every year for Hajj and Umrah, but have never complained about it. Instead, they have always enjoyed the water that refreshes them. Zamzam water's appeal has always been universal. This water has never been chemically treated or chlorinated as is the case with water pumped into the cities. Biological growth and vegetation usually takes place in most wells. This makes the water unpalatable owing to the growth of algae causing taste and odor problems. But in the case of the Zamzam water well there wasn't any sign of biological growth.

Source : http://www.islamicbulletin.org/newsletters/issue_22/zamzam.aspx

Passive versus Active + Causative verbs

We often use the passive to describe a process or emphasize the action rather than who is doing the action.

Structure

The passive always contains : To be + past participle

The verb To be can be conjugated in any tense:

·         Present simple : am, is,are

·         Past simple : was,were

·         Present perfect: has/have been

·         Future : will be

·         Modals in the past : could/should/would/must have been

·         Present continous: am/is/are being

·         Past continous: was/were being

·         Paast perfect : had been

·         With modals: can/could/must/should...be

Usage

The passive is used more commonly in writing especially in reports, textbook, in industry, science and technology to describe processes, and for official rules. We use the passive in these cases because we don’t always know who the agent is.

Compare the active and the passive in the following examples:

Active                                                                                                  Passive

People have used this application for a long time.         This application has been used for a long time.

You freeze-dry the reagent in the vials.                         Reagent are freeze-dried in the vials.

Someone has to count the points at the end.                  The points have to be counted at the end.

Causative Verbs

Causative verbs are used to show that a person causes, makes or enables another person to do something or make something happen. The structure of these types of sentences can be confusing as the verb after the causative verb may be in either the infinitive without to, the to-infinitive or the past participle depending on the causative verb used.

Causative verb + Infinitive without to	The director	Made Will have Could have let	John install the new computers.
Causative verb + to-infinitive	The director	Got Wants Will allow Could permit	John install the new computers.
Causative verb + past participle	The director	Had Got	The new computers installed (by john).

Source : https://global-exam.com/en/toeic-grammar-passive-versus-active-causative-verbs

Tugas Softskill bulan ketiga Bahasa Inggris Bisnis 2

Exercise 31 Nouns Functioning as Adjectives

1.  Twelve-story
2.  The language
3.  Three-act
4.  Two-day
5.  70-piece
6.  Five-shelve
7.  16-ounce
8.  Six-quart
9.  Made of brick
10.Ten-speed


Exercise 32 Enough
1.  Enough people
2.  Enough french
3.  Enough time
4.  Fast Enough
5.  Soon Enough
6.  Early Enough
7.  Hard Enough
8.  Slowly Enough
9.  Enough flour
10.Enough books


Exercise 33 Because/Because of
1.  Because
2.  Because
3.  Because of
4.  Because
5.  Because of
6.  Because of
7.  Because of
8.  Because
9.  Because
10.Because of


Exercise 34 So/Such
1.  So
2.  So
3.  Such
4.  Such
5.  So
6.  So
7.  So
8.  So
9.  Such
10.So
11.So
12.So
13.So
14.Such
15.So


Exercise 35 Passive Voice
1. The President is called by somebody every day
2. The other member are being called by Jhon
3. Mr. Watson will be called tonight by somebody
4. Considerable damage has been caused by the fire
5. The supplies should be bought for this class by the teacher


Exercise 36 Causative Verbs
1.  Leave
2.  Repaired
3.  Type
4.  Call
5.  Painted
6.  Write
7.  Lie
8.  Sent
9.  Cut
10.Sign
11.Leave
12.Wash
13.Fixed
14.Published
15.Find

Why Learn English: 10 Reasons to Learn English

There are many reasons to learn English, but because it is one of the most difficult languages to learn it is important to focus on exactly why it is you want to learn English. Here we will look at ten great reasons why English is so important. Post this list somewhere you can see it and it will montivate you to keep going even when you are tired of trying to figure out which witch is which!

1. English is the most commonly used language among foreign language speakers. Throughout the world, when people with different languages come together they commonly use English to communicate.


2. Why learn English when it is so difficult? Well, knowing English will make you bilingual and more employable in every country in the world.


3. Despite China, the United States is still a leader in technical innovation and economic development. English is used in the United States and in each of these fields.


4. English is commonly spoken throughout much of the world due to Great Britian’s expansion during the colonial age. People in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, parts of Africa, India, and many smaller island nations speak English. English is the commonly adopted second language in Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. Speaking English opens these countries and cultures up to you.


5. Another reason why English is so important is that it is the language of science. To excel in science you need to know English.


6. English is based on an alphabet  and, compared to Chinese, it can be learned fairly quickly.


7. English is also the language of the Film Industry and English means you no longer have to rely on subtitles.


8. In the United States, speaking English immediately opens up opportunities regardless of your ethnicity, color, or background.


9. Learn English and you can then teach your children English -- or if they are already learning, you can now communicate with them in English.


10. English speakers in the United States earn more money than non-English speakers. Learning English will open your job prospects and increase your standard of living.

Source : http://www.5minuteenglish.com/why-learn-english.htm